Portugal on and off road North to Center (ACT Portugal)

A couple of weeks ago I did the first 3 days of the 5 day ACT Portugal from Touratech, its basically a set of gpx files that are maintained by the folks at touratech, with a north to south crossing of Portugal at around 50/60% offroad

https://www.adventurecountrytracks.com/portfolio/act-portugal/

So I went with 3 friend, I did the first 3 days from Bragança to Alamal with the group, and then headed home, half of the groupd did the whole 5 days (I'll being doing the other 2 later this year)

First day we made our way up from Lisbon to Bragança to the starting point, I had wanted to do a road starting at Freixo Espada a Cinta for a very long time, and it did not disappoint:









Ended up staying at a camping site located just north of Bragança (it was recommended on the ACT website)





ACT Day 1
First thing the next morning we went to the starting point of the gpx track, and that is the Bragança Castle:


While the first day is only 187kms, I would say the first day is probably the most technical, a lot of jagged and loose rocks, some big uphills and bigger downhills, but also a lot of nice places to visit:



I took my first fall right after climbing up this mountain, the descend was very loose and bigger rocks, and as soon as the bike stopped I was in a bit of trouble, tipped over twice here, the rest of the day while technical was manageable. Also a lot of dust on this first sunny and dry day





We ended day one in Torre de Monecorvo, were we were lucky yo find a place that had, besides a warn shower, a nice garage for the bikes:









I'll continue this tomorrow

Great report and photos! Thanks for posting

Ditto. Good job. I am looking forward to the continuation. Thanks for making the effort.

I spent about 10 days in Portugal around 1995 and really enjoyed it. Beautiful country and great food.

Ben.

Did someone say great food?





Day 2 we started in Torre de Moncorvo, and the objective was going to Serra da Estrela (highest peak in continental Portugal)
So we rode out and as soon as me hit the trail a mate got a flat that was resolved quickly


Most of the views from day 2 were of the Douro valley




This is one of the tracks markes as "optional", well worth seeing


"Bent" stone:


And this day was cut short as it started raining heavily in the afternoon, so we decided to not risk doing the offroad bits as it was mostly mountainside dirt (mud) tracks and some clay as well, we headed straight to Serra da Estrela, via Penhas da Saude

Went from 20 to 4º weather in the ascend




Ended up staying at the Youth Hostel


Had a great dinner and slept well!

More to come

Thanks for your reports, inspiring stuff as its not so far on a ferry for me.

How do you find the suitability of these trails to heavyweight adventure bikes? Would you rather be on a 500-600 single? How much offroad experience do you guys have?

Not sure I'd want to tackle some of that stuff on my 1050 loaded up.... I'd love to do some more adventurous routes on my bike but feel intimidated by the weight, might just take a backpack and hire a dirtbike.

I don't have any experience and this is 100% doable on a big adv bike, we were all on 800s and one on a 1200. To me personally the only problem was descends with loose rock, and by day 3 I was doing those better each time (as long as you don't stop, trust the bike to do its thing it was working out)

I would say a 500 or 600cc you would do this faster, but this is 100% a tourist offroad trail, to be done moderate speed, stop frequently and see the view

Nice, will have a think about it. Got plenty of experience on trail/enduro bikes but not adv bikes.

What puts me off a little is the cast wheels on my 1050, but reckon they'd be up to mild stuff.

Anyone got a gopro in your crew?

So, last day for me was the 3rd day, that would go from Serra da Estrela do Alamal (Tagus River), we got up a bit late and started looking for the track, luckily we were right on course with the track, so we caught a great dirt track that ran on the side of the mountain downwards off the mountain.



This last day to me was the longest day, and also the most breathtaking as we ran up and down mountains all day, a lot of diferente terrains as well




And also included the "Parque Eólico da Gardunha", we did the whole of the track seen below:





Here we took a slight rest



Was by far the longest day, ended up having lunch in the middle of the track














Belvar castle, near the end of day 3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Belver






And the end, the river "beach" at Alamal



Hopefully this year I will be able to do days 4 and 5

Yes, I am editing the video this week, is taking longer than expected as soon as I have it up Ill link to it here

Great stuff - I'm factoring to hit Portugal / Espana very soon after retirement - find a place to live - get a used dual sport & travel around the continent.

Love the food!! I've dined with your cousins in Newark.

Polvo grelhado e vinho tinto

Awesome pics - thanks for sharing

Haha, I used to live in New Jersey, so I literally have cousins in Newark

Lmao of course you do - it's either there or Masshole

So many great places in Newark but this place should be locked up for selling such great rolls.

Teixeira's Bakery - my filha goes crazy when I bring the Chop Rolls home.

It's going to take me a while to get all of these up on youtube, but here goes the first, actually the day before the first of the ACT, it's on our way up from Lisbon to Bragança

Here is day 1 on ACT Portugal, from Bragança to Torre de Moncorvo

Here is day 2 of ACT, going from Torre de Moncorvo to Vale do Rossim (Serra da Estrela), unfortunately the day was cut short by a massive rain storm, so we missed around half of the track and ended up riding directly to Serra da Estrela.

They do love their meat in Lisbon near the Expo centre there is a restaurant call the Brazilian as long as the flag is up they keep bringing the meat awesome stuff